Letting the Side Down on Venezuela

Dave SchulerFebruary 21, 2014

I find the developments in Venezuela interesting and, likely, significant. Sadly, I don’t have the knowledge or background to comment on the situation with any real confidence. Am I breaking the code of the blogosphere?

No one cares about Venezuela because everyone is agitating for the USA to DO SOMETHING about the Ukraine. So best to ignore the Venezuela entirely, but you should definitely be posting that we should DO SOMETHING about the Ukraine.

A productive way to think about Ukraine is from the perspective of interests. What are the interests of the various parties?

Russia has a clear interest in the Ukraine not only from the perspective of irredentism but from the point of view of a country that doesn’t have much in the way of natural borders.

Ukrainians are divided. Some, mostly in the eastern province, want to turn towards Russia. Among these some are ethnic Russians while others are Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Some want to turn towards the EU.

We have an interest in human rights in Ukraine as, presumably, does the EU. However, that’s largely where our interests end and I think the same is true of the EU. The EU is repeating the mistakes it made in Yugoslavia and it’s getting the same results.

A leaked document from November of 2013 shows that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborated with the Colombian government and Venezuelan opposition leaders to destabilize Venezuela and stoke massive protests. The document, obtained by journalist and attorney Eva Golinger, was the product of a June 2013 meeting between US-based FTI Consulting, the Colombian Fundación Centro de Pensamiento Primero Colombia (Centre for Thought Foundation of Colombia First), and Fundación Internacionalismo Democratico (Democratic Internationalism Foundation). The third tactic outlined in the 15-point strategy document openly called for sabotage:

“Maintain and increase the sabotage that affect the population’s services, particularly the electricity system, that puts blame on the government for assumed inefficiencies and negligence.”

Of course, the media in the NYC-DC corridor seems Hellbent on a nuclear conflagration with Putin ever since Putin stated that he wasn’t all that friendly with TEH GAYS. It’s amazing what people from the Ivy Leagues consider worth dying for.

“A leaked document from November of 2013 shows that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborated with the Colombian government and Venezuelan opposition leaders to destabilize Venezuela and stoke massive protests.”

Except the leaked document doesn’t even mention USAID, assuming the document is even real, which is quite doubtful IMO.

If any place could institute a progressive type of economy, it should be Venezuela. With their oil resources, they should have no problem implementing all of Paul Krugman’s policy solutions. It should be an economic showcase.